Feature EditorialsThe Global Free Presshttp://globalfreepress.org/departments/features
Mon, 19 Mar 2018 14:48:16 +0000Joomla! 1.5 - Open Source Content Managementen-gbThe Evbuotubu Crisishttp://globalfreepress.org/departments/features/3956-the-evbuotubu-crisis
http://globalfreepress.org/departments/features/3956-the-evbuotubu-crisisBACKGROUND TO THIS DOCUMENTARY PHOTO REPORT: In September, 2012, FRANCIS UMENDU ODUPUTE, an artist cum journalist with The NIGERIAN OBSERVER, a government-owned newspaper in Benin City, Edo State of Nigeria, began an investigation into an over-populated, poorly maintained and yearly-flooded primary school in a fast developing community he resides with his wife, three children and a ward. He had enrolled his ward in the densely populated public primary school - that was how he got to know more about the school’s problems and became bothered that for the 12th year running, children in this primary school had been suffering from flooding and poor sanitation, water-related diseases, over-crowding and psychological traumas, as the school and indeed their community, Evbuotubu/Iguedaiye, in Egor LGA of Edo State, was alleged to have been neglected and marginalized by successive governments of the State.

Mr. Odupute courageously published a serialized, pro-poor investigative story on the demographic, environmental and WASH situation in Evbuotubu Primary School and the community roads in The Nigerian Observer Newspapers, between 2014 and 2015. The journalist also embarked on few strategic media interfaces and dialogue with Evbuotubu community leaders and youths on the need to increase their cry to the State government.
]]>fic_55@yahoo.com (Francis Odupute)Feature EditorialsThu, 25 Aug 2016 00:09:23 +0000After Paris: Understanding not Revengehttp://globalfreepress.org/departments/features/3917-after-paris-understanding-not-revenge
http://globalfreepress.org/departments/features/3917-after-paris-understanding-not-revenge1. At the basis of all concrete identities: “Muslim,” “Sunni,” “French citizen,” etc., lies a core human being, a capacity for self-making within the objective contexts of natural and social life. Selves are made, identities forged, reproduced, modified, and developed through processes of work and affective-symbolic interaction with other people within and across societies.

Work relations and social interactions are contradictory – they are both creative and alienating, mutualistic and antagonistic, peaceful and violent. When politics loses sight of or ignores for partisan advantage the underlying human capacity for self-making and re-making it fixates on the abstractions. A fixation on the abstract markers of particular identities leads to their reification, and their reification leads in turn to false, quasi-natural explanations of conflict (the problems in the Middle east are the consequence of a ‘clash of civilizations,’ racism is a result of the ‘natural’ inferiority of the demonized race, etc).

Digging beneath the surface identity to the core human activity of identity formation, reveals it as the result (always modifiable) of a process of practical and symbolic labour that unfolds in dynamic interaction with other selves and the objective world. Other selves, the natural world, and the social institutions that mediate the relationship between individuals and nature are themselves dynamic and change in response to changed activities.

Foregrounding this dynamic process and using it as a wedge against the stereotypes of reified thinking is the constructive political role that philosophical thinking can play. While philosophers will also be motivated by concrete political evaluations of the relative legitimacy of conflicting positions, if they are to be active as philosophers, they must ground their political assessments in the deeper understanding of human self-making activity explained above.

]]>trevorhill@hill-communications.ca (Jeff Noonan)Feature EditorialsSun, 29 Nov 2015 05:00:00 +0000New World Re-Orderinghttp://globalfreepress.org/departments/features/3839-new-world-re-ordering
http://globalfreepress.org/departments/features/3839-new-world-re-orderingWhat should we call the current era? Post-everything? Or perhaps, the interregnum? Whatever the name it should be given, the current period is characterized by neoliberal trans-nationalization. In addition, U.S. hegemony has been under question since the beginning of this period. In fact, the Empire is no longer U.S.-American and a change in hegemony is in full swing. Despite what world-systems theorists such as Giovanni Arrighi suggest, the balance does not seem to be tipping toward China. Nevertheless, as Niall Ferguson points out, it is moving toward Chimerica. Furthermore, since the beginning of the global financial crisis, no project has been in sight that could reorganize the active consensus of the subalterns, move perspectives on accumulation one step up the ladder, and provide a position capable of establishing a new world order.

Attempts to secure neoliberal positions through authoritarianism are now facing a new transnational cycle of movements (Candeias 2013). Alongside numerous attempts by Islamist movements, the remaining great powers are sparring for spheres of influence, whether in Eastern Europe or through the appropriation of African resources. At the same time, the United States is endeavouring to prevent further losses of its room to manoeuvre; Russia is striving to expand its influence through energy and resource policies, and arms trafficking, whereas China has linked its imperial ambitions to the provision of foreign aid.
]]>trevorhill@hill-communications.ca (Mario Candeias)Feature EditorialsSat, 06 Jun 2015 04:02:43 +000068 Years of Struggle and Resistance for Peace, Justice and Freedomhttp://globalfreepress.org/departments/features/3740-68-years-of-struggle
http://globalfreepress.org/departments/features/3740-68-years-of-struggleWhen I was invited to speak at today's forum, the attacks in Paris against the magazine Charlie Hebdo and the kosher super market had not taken place. In light of the media coverage of what happened in Paris, I feel the need to situate my comments against the backdrop of those events. I hope you will indulge me.

Over the past 500 years, rampaging capitalism has expanded ruthlessly across the world, eliminating all impediments to the accumulation of wealth in the hands of those who own and run the system. We are familiar with the attendant results: rising standards of living for a few, accompanied by growing insecurity, impoverishment and degradation of the many.

The contemporary world, run as it is by the forces of capitalism, is characterized by grotesque, ever-increasing levels of inequality and instability.

Imperialism and colonialism, which involve the forcible subjugation of the peoples of the global south to the demands of this system, have played an essential part in its growth and sustenance.
]]>trevorhill@hill-communications.ca (Sid Shniad)Feature EditorialsThu, 29 Jan 2015 21:20:43 +0000Past and Present: Malcolm X in Fergusonhttp://globalfreepress.org/departments/features/3681-past-and-present-malcolm-x-in-ferguson
http://globalfreepress.org/departments/features/3681-past-and-present-malcolm-x-in-fergusonProtests, riots and police violence in Ferguson (a suburb of St. Louis), Missouri, last August have laid bare “America's racial rift” says The Guardian Weekly.[1] Mainstream opinion-makers have tended to interpret the Michael Brown case and the protests that followed his death in terms of police brutality, racial tensions, and legal responsibility (of the shooting of unarmed 18-year-old African American, Michael Brown), showing these events as specific to American society.

Their significance is however much broader. To capture this broader picture, one has to adopt a method of thinking which does not view Ferguson only empirically. Thinking these events as constituent parts, or outcomes, of a social and economic system is a necessary undertaking to those committed to social justice and emancipation. Such method of thought makes Malcolm X a contemporary of our problems even though his life and work were those of a Black nationalist of the 1960s.

Segregation is a key fact of the racial rift in St. Louis. Reports in the press have underlined that the relations of mistrust and hatred between the police and the local Black community were imbedded in the segregated geography of the city. Vickie Place – where the family of Michael Brown occupies one of these single-family homes built in the 1950s – doesn't look different of the rest of suburbia. But it has a specific place in the social relations and the geography of the city. To the predominantly white police officers who patrol it, Vickie Place “appears to be a forbidding, alien, territory. A land of the other. It might as well be Falluja”, say Observer reporters Rory Carroll and Jon Swaine.[2]

]]>trevorhill@hill-communications.ca (Dimitris Fasfalis)Feature EditorialsWed, 10 Dec 2014 20:22:07 +0000Ukraine, Coup or Revolution?http://globalfreepress.org/departments/features/3631-ukraine-coup-or-revolution
http://globalfreepress.org/departments/features/3631-ukraine-coup-or-revolutionThe Ukraine is no longer ‘in flames.’ With the hurried flight of the detested Viktor Yanukovych, peace and order have descended on Kiev (except for some fistfights in the Parliament!) There is no looting. Self-organized popular militias protect the luxurious Presidential Palace (privatized by Yanukovych) as crowds of citizen file through to gape at his collections of antique and modern automobiles.

These orderly crowds have lived through the experience of months of revolutionary activity in support of the constantly renewed Kiev occupations. They are conscious and disciplined. All through the cold winter they have organized a continuous mass occupation, including the provision of food, hygiene, safety, and self-defense under the discipline of units of one hundred (‘Hundreds’). They have improvised nation-wide network of smaller occupations and support groups providing the Kiev occupiers with food, medical assistance, rotating reinforcements, and recently the weapons (‘liberated’ from the Army in Lviv) which, although never fired, turned the tide in favour of the revolution.
]]>trevorhill@hill-communications.ca (Richard Greeman)Feature EditorialsWed, 23 Apr 2014 18:59:11 +0000The Scandalization of Politics: On Ford-Lisi, Harper-Duffy, and a Few Othershttp://globalfreepress.org/departments/features/3603-the-scandalization-of-politics-on-ford-lisi-harper-duffy-and-a-few-others
http://globalfreepress.org/departments/features/3603-the-scandalization-of-politics-on-ford-lisi-harper-duffy-and-a-few-othersWe are gripped by scandal. In Ottawa, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is implicated in a top-level cover up of illegal expense claims by one his own foot soldiers: now-suspended Senator Mike Duffy.

In Toronto, police surveillance data reveal that Toronto Mayor Rob Ford and Alessandro Lisi (his “occasional driver and friend” !?!) move effortlessly between drug deals, football fields and the mayor's office. Lurid pictures abound: Senator Duffy clutching his bags full of bombshells, Harper looking blindsided in the House, mysterious envelopes being passed between Ford and Lisi in the woodlots and gas stations of Etobicoke.

Disturbing times. Entertaining times. For many of us, also hopeful times. Who has not dared to dream that crack and runaway expense claims will bring the Harper-Ford era to an end? After all, scandal helped do in so many others... Richard Nixon, Paul Martin, Mel Lastman, Nicolas Sarkozy and a string of Montreal mayors. The list is long.

The Scandalization of Politics: Who Benefits?

We are talking about much more than a few incidental scandals. More and more of what goes by 'politics' according to the media – statecraft, elections, parliamentary debates – is taken over by endless 'revelations' about individuals, their personal failings or corrupt practices. Political conflict takes the form of duels between individual establishment figures: politicians, newspaper editors, radio hosts, and police chiefs. We all fill social media sites with our own views about who we think are the good guys in this gladiator sport.
]]>trevorhill@hill-communications.ca (Stefan Kipfer)Feature EditorialsTue, 19 Nov 2013 23:13:49 +0000How Occupation was Dressed Up as Peacehttp://globalfreepress.org/departments/features/3584-how-occupation-was-dressed-up-as-peace
http://globalfreepress.org/departments/features/3584-how-occupation-was-dressed-up-as-peaceInterview with Ali Abunimah - The “peace process” between Israel and the Palestinians that began with the signing of accords in Oslo, Norway, 20 years ago this month was widely celebrated at the time as an important step toward establishing a “viable Palestinian state.”

But in the two decades since, the Palestinian economy has been further decimated, Israel has expanded its Jewish-only settlements in the West Bank, and the other Occupied Territory of Gaza has been subjected to a suffocating siege and regular military strikes. In short, conditions for Palestinians have worsened, and Israel's colonial domination has been enhanced.

How did this happen? Ali Abunimah, co-founder of ElectronicIntifada.net and author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse, spoke with Eric Ruder, of socialistworker.org (where this interview first appeared), about the consequences of a “peace process” that has brought more ethnic cleansing, more apartheid and more war.
]]>trevorhill@hill-communications.ca (Eric Ruder)Feature EditorialsWed, 23 Oct 2013 15:31:54 +0000Lac-Mégantic: A Social and Ecological Tragedyhttp://globalfreepress.org/departments/features/3531-lac-megantic-a-social-and-ecological-tragedy
http://globalfreepress.org/departments/features/3531-lac-megantic-a-social-and-ecological-tragedyQuébec has just experienced the most brutal ecological catastrophe of its history. On July 6, 2013, a train loaded with 72 cars carrying crude oil derailed during the night. It exploded in downtown Lac-Mégantic, a small municipality (pop. 6000) in the Eastern Townships.

A series of explosions and a fire completely destroyed more than 30 buildings including the municipal library, the town's archives, heritage buildings, businesses and residences. Police have confirmed that 50 people were killed by the blast.

The accident also destroyed a central water line, forcing the people of Lac-Mégantic to boil their water. It is estimated that 10,000 litres of oil leaked into Mégantic lake and the Chaudière river, a river that crosses Beauce before it enters the St. Lawrence. This threatens several other municipalities that rely on these watersheds, including the towns of Saint-George and Lévis.

In the face of this unprecedented disaster, it's important to increase our solidarity with the people of Lac-Mégantic; we must refuse to be indifferent.

If we hope to stop this from happening again, we need to identify the causes and not merely dwell on the effects. This was not simply an isolated incident of a misapplied brake or a solitary conductor. The catastrophe at Lac-Mégantic is a symptom of a more systemic problem: the drive for profits from the increasing reliance on oil in Canada. Risks of oil spills and explosions have become widespread in Québec despite assurances from governments and industry spokespeople.
]]>trevorhill@hill-communications.ca (The Ecosocialist Network)Feature EditorialsSun, 18 Aug 2013 05:00:00 +0000Failure to Protect Female Teen Assault Victimhttp://globalfreepress.org/departments/features/3446-failure-to-protect-female-teen-assault-victim
http://globalfreepress.org/departments/features/3446-failure-to-protect-female-teen-assault-victimProtests Erupt in Nova Scotia - There is anguish and anger across the province of Nova Scotia following the death by suicide of teenager Rehtaeh Parsons on April 7. The 17-year old hanged herself in the family home on April 4. Three days later, her parents consented to removing her from life support.

Rehtaeh Parsons death was provoked by institutional failure to deal with an alleged gang sexual assault she suffered in November 2011 at the hands of four teenage boys who were schoolmates at Cole Harbour District High School, in the Halifax region. The teens had been drinking alcohol in the parental home of one of the boys.

Adding to Parson's humiliation, and a criminal act in its own right, was the posting of a photo of the assault to social media several days later by one of the alleged assailants. The photo played a crucial role in the later suicide because it provoked an endless string of taunts and threats against Parsons, sometimes by former schoolmates, oft times by strangers.

Concern over her story quickly became international because the institutional sexism that it revealed is a feature of capitalist society worldwide. Women are increasingly rising up against it – from India and foreign-occupied Afghanistan to the United States. Police in California recently arrested three young men in connection to the suicide of Audrie Pott in September 2012. She, too, suffered a gang sexual assault.
]]>trevorhill@hill-communications.ca (Roger Annis)Feature EditorialsFri, 26 Apr 2013 20:43:01 +0000